Drugs

Performance Enhancing Drugs

Wine and wisdom. Very few great works of philosophy are also great works of art.

Thinking Through Drinking: Wine, Beer and Philosophy. Binge Drinking Among Women Is Both Dangerous And Overlooked : Shots - Health News. Hide captionA picture from the photo story "Keg Stand Queens," which explores the gender dynamics of undergraduate binge drinking.

Amanda Berg/The Alexia Foundation for NPR A picture from the photo story "Keg Stand Queens," which explores the gender dynamics of undergraduate binge drinking. Binge drinking is something many people want to shrug off. But officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say it's a public health problem that deserves more attention. You might be tempted to think binge drinking is mainly an issue for men, but that's not the case. About 13 percent of U.S. women go on drinking binges each month, says the CDC, citing survey data collected in 2011.

Potopia. The Conservative Case for Legalizing Pot. Obama's War on Pot. The Narco State - By Charles Kenny. America's longest running war -- the one against drugs -- came in for abuse this weekend at the Summit of the Americas.

The abuse is deserved. Forty years of increasingly violent efforts to stamp out the drug trade haven't worked. And the blood and treasure lost is on a scale with America's more conventional wars. On the upside, we know that an approach based around treating drugs as a public health issue reaps benefits to both users and the rest of us. President Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala opened the rhetorical offensive against the drug war last week when he wrote that "decades of big arrests and the seizure of tons of drugs" have not stopped "booming" production and consumption.
In Legal Showdown Over Marijuana, Oakland Dispensary Takes Leading Role. JEFFREY BROWN: The battle between federal and state authorities legal marijuana is coming to a head in a high-profile case in California.

A dispensary there is capturing national attention, even more so now that Colorado and Washington state have approved the legal use of recreational pot. Our report comes from special correspondent Jake Schoneker.
Should the U.S. legalize hard drugs?
Consider current policy concerning the only addictive intoxicant currently available as a consumer good — alcohol.

America’s alcohol industry, which is as dependent on the 20 percent of heavy drinkers as they are on alcohol, markets its products aggressively and effectively. Because marketing can drive consumption, America’s distillers, brewers and vintners spend $6 billion on advertising and promoting their products. Americans’ experience with marketing’s power inclines them to favor prohibition and enforcement over legalization and marketing of drugs. But this choice has consequences: More Americans are imprisoned for drug offenses or drug-related probation and parole violations than for property crimes.

And although America spends five times more jailing drug dealers than it did 30 years ago, the prices of cocaine and heroin are 80 to 90 percent lower than 30 years ago.
The Colbert Report - America's Pot-astrophe. The Drug Laws That Changed How We Punish. Hide captionNew York Gov.

Nelson Rockefeller had been a champion of drug rehabilitation, job training and housing. Then, he did a dramatic about-face and backed strict sentences for low-level criminals. Central Press/Getty Images New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller had been a champion of drug rehabilitation, job training and housing. The United States puts more people behind bars than any other country, five times as many per capita compared with Britain or Spain.
Decades On, Stiff Drug Sentence Leaves A Life 'Dismantled'
Hide captionNow 59, George Prendes works as a telemarketer in New York and struggles to make the rent on his small Bronx apartment.

Natasha Haverty Now 59, George Prendes works as a telemarketer in New York and struggles to make the rent on his small Bronx apartment. There are roughly half a million people behind bars for nonviolent drug crimes in America. But no one really knows how many people have been sentenced to long prison bids since the laws known as Rockefeller drug laws first passed 40 years ago. What's clear is that tough sentencing laws, even for low-level drug dealers and addicts, shaped a generation of young men, especially black and Hispanic men.
Evaluating Drug Decriminalization in Portugal 12 Years Later. Before he got involved in the global war on drugs, João Goulão was a family physician with his own practice in Faro, on Portugal's Algarve coast.

Arriving in his small office in Lisbon, the 58-year-old tosses his jacket aside, leaving his shirt collar crooked. He looks a little tired from the many trips he's taken lately -- the world wants to know exactly how the experiment in Portugal is going. Goulão is no longer able to accept all the invitations he receives. He adds his latest piece of mail to the mountain of papers on his desk. From this office, where the air conditioning stopped working this morning, Goulão keeps watch over one of the world's largest experiments in drug policy.
Study: Intelligence, cognition unaffected by heavy marijuana use. By William J.

Cromie Gazette Staff The new study of cognitive changes caused by heavy marijuana use has found no lasting effects 28 days after quitting. Following a month of abstinence, men and women who smoked pot at least 5,000 times in their lives performed just as well on psychological tests as people who used pot sparingly or not at all, according to a report in the latest edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Requiem for a Dream. Addict To Activist: How Elton John Found His 'Cure'
Hide captionSir Elton John speaks at an Elton John AIDS Foundation benefit in 2010. The organization, which John founded in 1992, provides grants to support HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment programs.
Painkiller Paradox: Feds Struggle To Control Drugs That Help And Harm : Shots - Health News. Hide captionMichael Israel (shown here, left, with his father, Avi, in 2006) killed himself after becoming addicted to prescription painkillers.

Avi Israel Michael Israel (shown here, left, with his father, Avi, in 2006) killed himself after becoming addicted to prescription painkillers. A few years ago, a doctor started prescribing Michael Israel painkillers for bad cramps in his gut.
To Fight Addiction, FDA Advisers Endorse Limits On Vicodin : Shots - Health News. Aldous Huxley interview-1958 (FULL)
The Doors of Perception. The Doors of Perception is a short book by Aldous Huxley, first published in 1954, detailing his experiences when taking mescaline.

The book takes the form of Huxley's recollection of a mescaline trip that took place over the course of an afternoon, and takes its title from a phrase in William Blake's 1793 poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Huxley recalls the insights he experienced, which range from the "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision".[1] He also incorporates later reflections on the experience and its meaning for art and religion. Background[edit]
Wake Up and Dream. Remee - The REM enhancing Lucid Dreaming Mask by Bitbanger Labs. Like Bitbanger Labs on Facebook Remee has been selected as a finalist for the William McShane Fund, by Buckyballs & Brookstone!
Nicotine Changes Cause Vivid Dreams. New Maps of Hyperspace.

Mind-altering drugs research call from Prof David Nutt. 23 January 2012Last updated at 21:12 By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News Could mind-altering drugs have a medical role? Former government drugs adviser Prof David Nutt has said that regulations should be relaxed to enable researchers to experiment on mind-altering drugs. Prof Nutt told BBC News that magic mushrooms, LSD, ecstasy, cannabis and mephedrone all have potential therapeutic applications.

The CIA's 5 Most Mind Blowing Experiments With LSD. Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again. Doctors consider using street drugs to ease suffering of dying patients. Recent studies at Harvard, U.C.L.A. and my alma mater John Hopkins have now made it plain that doctors should—as soon as proper safeguards can be put in place—be free to offer illicit drugs to patients who are terminally ill, in order to ease their emotional suffering and potentially offer them new perspectives—fueled by drug-induced insights—into issues like their own mortality. At Harvard, Dr.
Harvard LSD Research Draws National Attention. Stand Up Comedy... On Acid!
Is This Your Brain On God?
Hallucinations with Oliver Sacks. Renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks answers your questions about the secret world of hallucinations. These queries came to us via Twitter, Facebook and e-mail. Q.
The Fresh Air Interview: Author Daniel Okrent, Prohibition Life: Politics Loopholes And Bathtub Gin.